"This is an attempt to fight a protracted war with us!" Yan Chujie made a very clear judgment about the intentions of the South Vietnamese defenders. (Baidu search update is the fastest and most stable).

"It's not a bad thing, we didn't plan to do it quickly this time anyway. "Tom Wang looked very relaxed. In this attack on South Vietnam, the main task of the navy was to blockade the coastline and clean up the surface of the Xiang River in the early stage, but in the actual battle of the inland city of Hue, the navy could play very little role. According to the battle plan, after clearing the remnants of the South Vietnamese Naval Division on the Xiangjiang River, some of the Navy's combat ships will return to Sanya ahead of schedule to replenish the relatively empty maritime defense forces in the base camp. For Tom Wang, the combat mission he needs to undertake as a naval commander this time is not heavy, and most of the combat tasks he will only play in a supporting role in the future combat period.

"Now it's no longer intuitive to rely on the militia to reconnoiter on the front line, so I'll take my equipment and go south tomorrow morning to get some video data and come back. Qian Tiandun couldn't sit still after staying in the base in the rear for a few days: "The equipment I applied for last time I made a report, and I also brought it this time?"

"Rest assured, in such a big battle, the Executive Committee will definitely not pick on small details again. Yan Chujie nodded and responded: "The two octocopters in the inventory have been brought over, just to shoot the enemy's position." ”

The joint defensive positions painstakingly built by the South Vietnamese army, as well as the corresponding deployment and movement of troops, have no secrets to speak of in front of the traversers with three-dimensional reconnaissance methods. Aircraft equipped with camera equipment can clearly take pictures of the distribution of the defenders' positions from high altitudes, and then the front command can use this as a reference to formulate corresponding offensive tactics. It can be said that before the official war began, the Haihan side won half of it first.

The attack on Hue City was the first priority of the entire battle plan, but it was not the only combat goal. How to eliminate as many South Vietnamese forces as possible in a short period of time is also one of the goals of the military's operation. In the case of South Vietnam, a coastal terrain that spans more than 1,000 miles from north to south, the combat period required to flatten the entire territory is bound to be quite long, and the battle plan drawn up by the General Staff does not intend to attack the cities and towns one by one, but uses Hue City as a bait to induce garrisons from all over the territory of South Vietnam to rush to the rescue, and then destroy its main force by encircling the point and sending reinforcements.

Defeating the main force of the South Vietnamese army near Hue City, and then ending the small court in Hue City, the combat mission of the Hai Han militia was successfully completed. As for the rest of the clean-up work, there is no need for the Haihan militia to do it personally. With the current strength of the North Vietnamese Army, it should be enough to slowly sweep away the remnants of resistance in the South Vietnamese area.

Of course, the process is simple to say, but there are still many problems that need to be solved one by one in the specific implementation. It is necessary not only to exert enough military pressure on Hue City, but also to give the unrelenting ruling factions in the city time to transfer troops from all over the city back to Hue City to participate in the decisive battle, and at the same time to take into account their own troop deployment, this middle degree still needs to be well grasped by the commanders.

On 27 February, the main force of the militia army, which had completed its rest at the temporary base at the mouth of the Xiangjiang Estuary, began to march inland. In the past few days, almost all the patrols sent by the South Vietnamese Army had been wiped out by the special operations units of Heitu Harbor who had gone out to reconnoitre, so the main force did not encounter enemy troops during the march. As for the war materials, they were sent directly to the front-line positions through a more convenient river. In order to protect the cargo ships carrying supplies, the navy dispatched four "exploration-class" warships and more than a dozen small inland river patrol ships to set up a defensive line on the river less than five miles from Hue City.

What Haihan didn't know was that after the death squad led by Wu Sen was wiped out without any resistance, the South Vietnamese Navy Division had no intention of fighting. In the past two days, all the ships have gathered on the river outside Hue to rush supplies and soldiers into the city from the south bank. Of course, due to the terrible experience of Wu Sen's team, the few remaining soldiers of the sailor division inevitably fled a lot in the past two or three days, which made the morale of the sailor fall into an irretrievable trough, and if another officer ordered to fight, the rest of the people might really scatter in a hurry.

However, this situation will not last long, as soon as the Hai Han side finds out about the retreat of the South Vietnamese side, they will soon send ships to block the river outside Hue City, cutting off the connection between the two sides. As for the remnants of these horses and horses of the sailors, the only way to survive is probably to retreat to the upper reaches of the Xiangjiang River, far away from the warships of the Haihan Mintuan.

After reconnaissance, the headquarters selected an area five miles north of Hue City near the river to build a front-line camp, which was only about a kilometer away from the South Vietnamese Army's joint defense outside the city. Under the cover of the infantry formation, the men unloaded all kinds of tools and components needed to build positions from the cargo ships docked on the river bank, and began to build on the river bank under the watchful eye of the South Vietnamese army in the distance.

For the defenders, it was obviously not a comfortable thing to sit back and watch the opponent build a large camp under their noses, whether it was for tactical considerations or face problems, the South Vietnamese army had to make a little gesture.

So the South Vietnamese sent a team of 1,000 people to the position of the Hai Han militia, but this harassment was somewhat perfunctory. After the infantry had shot twenty or thirty men with their new rifles at a distance of two hundred meters, the unit quickly withdrew and withdrew into the middle of the formation.

"You want to lead us to chase!" In the face of the enemy's performance, Qian Tiandun commented very unceremoniously: "The acting skills are too poor, even if you want to be bait, you have to attack and then retreat, what does it mean to run around the periphery?"

"These monkey soldiers are quite good at using their brains in battle, but they are unlucky to meet us this time. Yan Chujie put down the binoculars in his hand, took over the conversation and said: "The Vietnamese defeated the Ming Dynasty army at the beginning, and they relied on the trick of luring the enemy to go deeper, and that battle wiped out the army of tens of thousands of people in the Ming Dynasty, and since then they have regarded it as a classic example. Thinking that our army is only a few thousand people, they must take out the old method and try it again. ”

The South Vietnamese army's efforts to lure the enemy did not have any effect, and the militia did not hesitate to set up positions in the predetermined positions, build large camps, and even have time to build a temporary wharf on the bank of a nearby river to facilitate the docking of cargo ships. The militias were in no hurry to launch an offensive against Hue City, as they would have to wait a little longer to give the South Vietnamese enough time to bring back their main forces from the northern line of defense to participate in the decisive battle.

At present, part of the main force of the South Vietnamese Army is still facing the North Vietnamese Army across the river from the Dong Hai defense line, but after the Hai Han militia landed on the coast near Hue, most of the Hue City side has already issued an order to the front line, but it will take at least five or six days for the army to rush back from the Dong Hai camp. Rather than trekking through mountains and rivers to fight one by one, it is better to guard the bait of Hue City and eliminate these troops at ease.

On 1 March, two "exploratory-class" warships boldly sailed into the waters of the Xiang River outside Hue City, but the anticipation of the resistance of the fighters on board did not appear, and dozens of ships on the river acted in unison, turning their bows and desperately heading upstream, without any intention of resisting. Almost effortlessly, the Haihan militia took control of the Xiangjiang River outside Hue City. This change also caused a small shock in Hue City, as it meant that all supplies and support from south of Hue were cut off.

However, due to the fact that there are several forts on the wall of Hue City, the entire river is basically shrouded in the range of the forts, so the Haihan side did not let more warships enter this section of water, and only kept two ships to take turns cruising on this section of the river.

On 2 March, the Hai Han Militia Army launched its first offensive from the north against the South Vietnamese positions outside Hue City. However, the attack was basically tentative, with infantry pressing the formation and artillery erecting positions at a distance of 800 meters, and bombarding several targets identified by aerial photographs of Tong Guò on the South Vietnamese side.

The artillery equipped by the South Vietnamese army did not have lightweight field artillery, and basically all of them were large city defense guns arranged on the walls of Hue City, so they were almost powerless against this kind of long-range attack by the militia group, and they could only watch as several of their masonry pillboxes were destroyed by artillery shells. However, because Hai Han's targets were very concentrated, the South Vietnamese Army was able to withdraw its troops from the danger zone in time, so although Hai Han's artillery bombardment achieved the combat goal, it did not actually kill or wound many South Vietnamese soldiers.

Although the South Vietnamese side did not have much ability to fight back, the Hai Han militia also had no way to maintain this offensive for too long, because such artillery tactics consumed too much ammunition, about 100 shells were fired in an hour, and there was no way to supply these ammunition locally, after all, it had to rely on ships to send it from the capital. Although there was plenty of ammunition in the war materials shipped in the early stage, the military did not dare to squander it wantonly, after all, no one dared to guarantee the timeliness of the sea transportation, and if the ammunition supply was cut off, the local militia troops would immediately fall into danger.

Although there was no way to maintain the frequency of high-intensity firepower, even such a round of intensive artillery bombardment had already caused a lot of shock to the South Vietnamese army. As for the atmosphere inside Hue City, it was even more tense, and the ordinary people did not know how the fighting was going outside the city, nor could they see where the Hai Han militia was advancing now, and could only hear the rumbling of artillery from outside the city.

The Hai Han militia did not rush to send infantry to clear the positions of the South Vietnamese army, but continued to maintain the frequency of launching a round of artillery bombardment every half day, waiting for the South Vietnamese reinforcements to rush back.

On 5 March, the reconnaissance units on the outskirts sent back information that South Vietnamese troops of about 14,000 to 17,000 men were rapidly marching in the direction of Hue City, which was less than 50 miles away. On the same day, the Hai Han Liaison Office stationed at Dong Hoi Camp in the north also sent a telegram saying that the North Vietnamese Army had launched an offensive as agreed and had broken through the Dong Hoi defense line in a smooth manner. The small number of South Vietnamese troops currently stationed there have begun to retreat southward, and the North Vietnamese army is also in pursuit.

On 6 March, reinforcements arrived at Hue City, but they did not know that the Dong Hai defense line had been breached, and the remnants of the troops that had withdrawn south had withdrawn to the vicinity of Quang Tri City.

The next day, after confirming that the troops withdrawing to Hue were already the largest armed force of the South Vietnamese Imperial Court in the area north of the Xiang River, the front command finally began to move in earnest.

The main forces of the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the militia were all concentrated in the area near the river in the northeast corner of Hue City and launched an attack on the positions of the South Vietnamese Army. The Haihan Navy also got a rare opportunity to appear at this stage, and responded to the army's attack with artillery fire from the river.

The South Vietnamese Army's position on this side of the river was strafed by more than 40 guns for half an hour, leaving almost nothing more than two feet high on the ground. At this time, the infantry marched in unison in a neat rectangular array towards the ploughed position.

At this time, the generals of the South Vietnamese Army had no way to retreat, and had to mobilize men and horses from nearby positions to fill this gap, but the rifle rotation fire of the Hai Han militia once again dealt a heavy blow to the South Vietnamese Army, and hundreds of soldiers fell under the merciless muzzle. It was only at this time that the South Vietnamese generals discovered that the preparations they had made up to this point did not have much practical effect under the blow of absolute firepower superiority.

The South Vietnamese defenders had to use the batteries on the wall in the northeast corner of Hue City in advance to prevent the Hai Han militia from continuing to advance. However, this futile struggle did not delay the Haihan militia for long, and soon the six 12-pounder army guns of the Haihan militia were pushed to the front line and began to fire at the batteries on the city walls.

Under the fire of the two sides, the advantages of Haihan's artillery in range and accuracy were quickly revealed. Although the fort of the city wall is condescending, the firing range is still not as good as the artillery of the Haihan people, and the battery with the maximum firing angle is still thirty or forty meters away from the artillery position on the Haihan side. In the third round of shelling, a shell hit the battlement of the city wall fort, although it did not directly hit the target, but the battlement was broken by the shell, and the flying stones beat several gunners around.

After several rounds of calibration, the accuracy of the Haihan artillery became more and more terrifying, and several shells hit the position of the battery, if it were not for the cover of the battlement, I am afraid that the entire gun position would have been bombarded into the sky. While the South Vietnamese artillerymen were trembling, the opponents were unhurriedly loading and aiming, without worrying about shells flying to their positions.

The South Vietnamese army launched several more rounds of counter-offensive against Hai Han, but the result was only more sacrifices, and the positions occupied by Hai Han were not recaptured, but had a tendency to continue to expand. After holding out for more than an hour, the fort on the northeast corner of the city wall was finally hit directly by a shell into the barrel, which lifted the cannon out, and smashed over two gunners by the way, and vomited blood and died on the spot.

However, before dark, the Hai Han militia, which had already occupied the position, silently retreated, apparently fearing that staying in this unsheltered position overnight would be attacked by the South Vietnamese army.

The South Vietnamese Army deployed troops overnight and took the position back. However, such an occupation was no longer of much practical significance, because all the defensive facilities on the position had been destroyed by the Hai Han militia in the previous day's fighting, and it was certainly too late to repair it overnight, and in the end the South Vietnamese army could only reluctantly add some improvised devices such as deer and horse rejection to the position.

Naturally, these things didn't play much role in front of the Haihan militia that opened the way, and as soon as they started, they were bombarded by shells and smashed into pieces. The speed at which the Haihan militia occupied this riverside area was much faster than yesterday, and it took less than half of the time of the previous time.

After the militia occupied the position this time, they did not rush to expand the position, but a large number of people and cargo ships on the river followed suit, and immediately built a position in the occupied area.

This comparison can show the gap between the two sides in terms of civil engineering construction technology. It took more than four months for the South Vietnamese army to build the current defensive position, while the sappers and men of the militia regiment had already built a position in the northeast corner of Hue in the area near the river. Of course, compared with the complete defense facilities of the South Vietnamese position, the Hai Han militia is still very simple, basically a defensive wall built of sand bags, multi-functional flatbed trolleys and other components, and then digging a shallow trench on the periphery, planting wooden stakes and pulling barbed wire. However, relying on sharp weapons, the Hai Han militia was able to cope with the counterattack of tens of thousands of South Vietnamese troops with such rudimentary fortifications.

On 8 March, the South Vietnamese Army launched its largest counteroffensive since the beginning of the war, intending to uproot the position of the Hai Han militia, which was only 400 meters away from the city wall. The South Vietnamese Army launched a tidal charge against the Haihan position in units of 1,000 men, hoping to rely on the superiority of troops to break through the rudimentary defense line of the Haihan militia. However, this method of trying to win by numbers has been proven unworkable several times in the past, and this time is no exception. Deadly shotguns erupted from the muzzles, tearing gaps in the charging South Vietnamese troops. The deafening sound of artillery and the splatters of flesh were enough to drive the South Vietnamese soldiers in the middle of it crazy. After just one morning of fighting, the corpses of the South Vietnamese army were piled up in a dense mass in front of the Haihan position. Although it was too late to count the results of the battle for the time being, according to Yan Chujie, who had been commanding the battle on the front line, at least more than 3,000 enemy troops were killed and wounded in the two-hour battle.